Rumors and Reputations
by N. H. Moonshadow
Summary: A series of oneshots showing Jodi and Barricade adjusting to life in Tranquility. (Part of the Wayward Ones Verse. Does not make sense without at least reading Disregarded)
1. Patience, or Lack Thereof

**Patience, or Lack Thereof**

_Summary_: Jodi has little patience for jerks. Tranquility High learns this quickly when Jodi makes a splash.

"Alright guys, wait for the person in front of you to get out on the other side, then go at the whistle. Okay, first swimmers at the ready!" The shrill blast of the teacher's whistle echoed across the room, then twin spashes as the first two swimmers launched themselves into the pool.

Jodi stood about five slots back, arms crossed along her middle with her fingers buried in the thin black cotton of her pilfered T-shirt. Not that Riley would mind that she took it to begin with.

It was the first week of school and apparently Tranquility High School students were required to take swimming at least once in freshman year, and being a junior new to the district she was automatically enrolled to the first available swim class. Oh, joy.

Not that Jodi couldn't swim, because she could, at least efficiently, if not strongly. When she was little, it was one of those things both her parents insisted she know, especially when she took after her dad when it came to natural bouyancy. Or, rather, his lack thereof. If they stopped swimming, they both tended to sink like rocks.

__"We aren't like rocks!"__ her dad's voice drifted up from her memory, back when she was still small enough to be carried on his shoulders. __"We're lobsters! We just scuttle along the bottom, ain't that right princess?"__

Jodi smiled slightly at the memory as she shuffled forward as the line moved up a space.

So, no, Jodi could swim just fine. Her problem was actually the about the swimsuits the school provided. Not that they were bad, being a one piece and all, but the design of it left her whole back on full display.

Since she started living in the Tanaka household Jodi had become much more comfortable with her damaged body these days, but she was under no illusions of how bad they looked. While completely healed, the energon burns on her back had settled into a darker pink than the one on her arm, the surface looking raw and shiny. The slashes across her back were raised and angry looking, lined with tiny little divots where the stitches had held her flesh together post-spinal surgery.

In other words, her back looked grotesque. She had already made it a point to change for gym in one of the bathroom stalls instead of the main locker room. When swimming had been due to start, she had presented her problem to her teacher and had gotten his permission to wear a T-shirt over the swimsuit.

There had been some light teasing from the other students, all freshmen, when she had entered the pool area with extra clothing, one boy being so bold as to actually tell her that she was too damn skinny to be hiding her body. The only reply she had graced them with was a raised middle finger and an eye roll.

The whistle blew again and the line scooted forward until the girl in front of her dove in. Jodi eyed her progress, and pointedly ignoring the hushed conversation behind her, she stepped up to the lip of the pool once she hit the halfway point.

Before the whistle could signal her turn, Jodi was given a firm shove from behind just as someone grabbed the collar of her shirt, yanking up as she tumbled feet-first into the water. Unable to take a proper breath before she was submerged, Jodi coughed and sputtered as she broke the surface, taking several deep gulps of air as she treaded water.

She noticed the cackle of unrestrained laughter, she turned and saw that the boy behind her was holding her shirt. Once he realized she was glaring at him, it sent him on a new fit and he laughed even harder, leaning on his friend for support. "Hey, man, it's not my fault you fell in!" he lifted up the shirt, gesturing with it. "Tried to catch you and everything! You slipped right out!"

Irritation flared up as she swam up to the edge and held up her hand, struggling to keep her voice as neutral as possible. "Give me my shirt."

"Get out and come get it. Or are you too afraid to show us your ribby body?"

__That little shit.__

Yes, Jodi was on the thin side. Last year she had been a waif, the stress of living with her uncle and the amount of time she spent on the streets certainly hadn't done her any favors. But these days she was thin the way her father had been thin, with very little body fat and a surprising amount of strong, lean muscle. And thanks to her house mates, she now knew how to utilize it.

"Fine."

Steeling herself, Jodi hauled herself out of the pool and stalked her dripping wet self towards the jackass, ignoring the gasps as the first of her peers noticed her scars. She stood before the punk holding her shirt, arms spread out. "Can I have my shirt back now?

"Nah, I think I like you better like this." The look he gave her was borderline lecherous

Oh, __eww.__

"Even with these?" Jodi rotated her wrist to display the straight burn on her arm, and used her other hand to slick her dripping bangs out of her eyes. "I can dig scars."

"Oh really? You sure about that?" Unprompted, Jodi gave a slow pivot on the ball of her foot, giving her audience a full turn. There were more gasps, and one muffled "oh my god" from a girl who sounded like she was going to be sick. When she finished the rotation, the boy was sheet white and his eyes were doing a fabulous impersonation of a goldfish. She gave him a vicious smile. "Thats what I thought." She snatched her shirt from limp fingers and turned to walk away, but the irritation was still sizzling beneath her skin and it made her pause.

__Oh, what the hell__.

She spun, planting her feet firmly like Prowl taught her, and swung a right hook right at his slack jaw.


	2. Viral

**Viral**

Summary: All the other students give Jodi a wide berth, which is awesome! Until it isn't.

Jodi reveled in the wide berth most of the others gave her after the pool incident. It was still early in the school year, and it was obvious that people were making it a point to steer clear. Normally Jodi didn't give a damn about school politics, but she counted her lucky stars for this one. It beat the hell out of being harassed, and she had more than her fair share of that at her last school. The week long suspention was well worth it for that alone.

However, the reaction of her fellow students was a bit over exaggerated given the actual damage Jodi had inflicted on the freshman's face. She had checked her punch, leaving only a bruise and a swollen cheek. Absolutely no blood had been spilled, but you would never know it from the way she was treated.

She tested the waters those first few days back and discovered that anyone who did talk to her kept the conversation polite, but noticably short, and that a well aimed glare would send most of her peers packing in a hurry. The first girl she tested that on scurried away so fast that she nearly tripped over her own backpack.

Jodi briefly entertained the thought that she just discovered an unknown superpower.

After so long being the low man on the totem pole, she settled in to enjoy being left alone for the first time in her life.

However, the shine of her new found superpower wore off three weeks later when her first big group project came up and no one seemed to know how to talk to her. Or look at her. or sit within five feet of her without fidgiting. The teachers had been mostly indifferent to her, so whatever it was, it only affected the students.

After three days of unbearable awkwardness she cut off her group leader mid-sentance, frustrated and unbearably curious.

"Okay, what is it? All of you are acting like I'm gonna eat you at any moment. Is this about that jerk in gym? 'Cause, I didn't hit him that hard. So what is it?"

All three of them shared nervous glances, and shifted uncomfortably. Clearly, no one wanted to be the first to speak.

"Come on! _What_?"

The only boy in the group, Matt, finally broke the silence. "Is it true that you used to go to a fancy private school in California?"

Jodi frowned, but gave a slow, drawn out "yes", because what the hell did that have to do with anything?

"So . . . " Matt rummaged around his pocked for his cell phone, pulling up the Youtube app. "Is this you?"

She stared blankly at the screen for a moment, and it wasn't until one girl bludgeoned the other with a textbook that she realized she was watching a recording of herself beating the crap out of Charity.

Holy shit. She had no idea that the fight was being recorded.

Jodi snatched the phone to see the summary, reading: _Private school cat fight! One leaves in a squad car, the other in an ambulence. Guess who_! Then she scrolled down and saw the view count.

Her eyes bugged.

She pointed at the screen. "Has the whole school seen this?"

Matt gave a telling smile.

Well, that explained that. The boys were going to have a field day once she told them about this. Barricade was going to find the whole thing hysterical.


	3. Unwanted Attention

**Unwanted Attention**

**Summary:** Some people just can't take a hint.

When the tension around her finally broke, she regretted it within days.

Suddenly, she was approachable, and she didn't need friends half as bad as her peers seemed to think. She could work just fine in a group when class called for it, she had no problem pulling her own weight, but she didn't need friends. At least, not the kind she had been attracting lately.

Okay, maybe it was just someone specific.

As if on cue, a familiar boy parked himself in the bench across from her, all bright smiles and messy sandy hair. "Hey Jo! We missed you this morning! Were you sick?"

Jodi jabbed her plastic spork in his direction. "Don't call me that," she growled, displeased that her lunch was interrupted. "And as you can see, I'm fine. Just had an appointment to go to."

"Ah! Dentist?"

"Yeah." _Sure. We'll go with that._

Truth was, it was an appointment with Ratchet. She had to wake up at an ungodly hour of pre-dawn for the drive out to base, but it was worth it in the long run. Ratchet was working on a possible optical implant that may or may not restore her fucked up vision, and the only reason he even considered it was because the implants in her back took so well. They were developing a contact lense as a test run, and if that went well, they would surgically install one inside the damaged eye.

Not that Matt needed to know all that.

"So . . ." He drummed his hands lightly on the table, biting his bottom lip and giving her a hopeful look.

"So what?" Jodi was super low on patience today. All she wanted to do was eat her lunch and be left alone.

"Did you think about it?"

Oh God, she thought they were past this. "Really Matt? I'm really, _really_ not the 'let's go to a dance' type. We went over this."

"Then forget the dance. How about pizza and a movie? No dancing required."

Jodi just shook her head and began poking at her food. Maybe if she ignored him he would eventually get the hint.

"Does Officer Tanaka have rules against dating or something?"

Jodi nearly choked on a mouthful of corn. "What? No!"

She wished those words never escaped her mouth, and regretted every sylable that tumbled from her lips, realizing she had accidentally given him some false hope.

It wasn't anything personal, really it wasn't, Matt was a nice guy and they worked well together on group projects, but it was just that she had absolutely no interest in dating. Like, Anyone. Ever. And even if she did, she liked to think it wouldn't be with someone so insistent. Peer pressure towards anything always made her want to dig her heels in and refuse on principle.

Unfortunately for Jodi, her words left a glimmer of what looked suspitiously like hope on Matt's face. "Oh, so it's a personal thing then? Because you're still settling into the area, right?"

"Look at you, you have me all figured out." Maybe sarcasm would help get her point across.

"Cool, that just means we should get to know eachother better!"

Or not. She groaned internally and resisted the urge to bury her face in her hands.

Days rolled by and Jodi had managed to steer clear of the whole dating line of conversation by avoiding the source of the problem whenever possible. It helped that she didn't have any other suitors coming out of the woodwork.

One was more than enough.

With Homecoming come and gone she thought she would be safe until Winter Ball at least. Jodi had made it a priority that she and the guys would be doing something the night of the dance. Hell, Jodi would be willing to tolerate a visit from Lydia if it meant she would be busy.

Then again, if Lydia knew that there was a dance coming up she just might take the opportunity to take Jodi dress shopping in a wayward attempt at bonding. That in itself was a special brand of torture. The woman lived for shopping, and was in the mindset that if you were female you should too. She didn't seem to understand that the teen's knowledge of name brands was due to survival in an elitist school and not from a genuine interest.

This was after several trys on Jodi's part to inform her.

Riley had thought their last shopping spree was downright hilarious. That is, until Jodi threw him under the bus by mentioning in passing that his own wardrobe was looking threadbare. Jodi wasn't above dragging someone else into her misery, and hopefully Riley would remember that.

At school, Jodi couldn't even garner sympathy about the whole dating thing from some of her more cordial classmates. While griping about the continual attempts at flirting, all her lab partner had done in response was give a shrug and say "You could do a lot worse than Matt." As if it was that cut and dry.

Because clearly, by teenager logic, a lack of disgust was a valid reason to date someone. Jodi just didn't understand other teens, especially the other tennants of Tranquility High.

It was after the final bell on a Friday when her luck at avoiding Matt finally ran out.

"How about a trip down to the lake? A group of us are going this weekend, so it'll be more of a hangout thing."

Jodi barely reined in a "punch first" reaction when Matt magically popped up on her blind side. She leveled a glare at him.

He offered her a sunny smile, unfazed and unaware. "It's a bit out from the main part of town, but I could pick you up if you need a ride. My parents bought me a car for my birthday. A '92 Supra! Can you believe it?"

From her days living in Palo Alto Jodi could believe a great deal of things. She distinctly remembered one of the upperclassmen getting a Mercedes for their birthday, only to T-bone a truck three weeks later. Two weeks after that Jodi noted he had Porche. Jodi was more impressed by driving skill than what you were driving.

Then again, when your best friend was a sentient Mustang, you tend to be a little underwhelmed by regular vehicles to begin with.

Speaking of 'Cade, their traveling range just got expanded to seventy five miles. Plus, Ratchet had finished the tester lense for her, and that she should come get it either tonight or tomorrow morning so she could adjust over the weekend. The two of them had arranged to take a small road trip to celebrate.

"I have plans already."

"Skip it."

"No." God, why wont he take a hint?

He shrugged. "Aww, come on Jodi. Don't be such a stick in the mud." He walked beside her as she walked past the student parking lot and down the sidewalk. She had hoped that he would veer off but no such luck. "Well, how about a lift home then? I know you can't drive." He made a gesture to his own face in a not-so-subtle reference to her bad eye, which pissed her off. "Save you the walk."

"I have a ride," she snipped, biting back a comment that she would bet money that she could drive just as well as Matt could. Better, once she got her vision up to par.

Half the fun of her and Barricade's little road trips was finding a secluded stretch of pavement and letting her test her driving skills. She was looking forward to being able to drive legally, but until then, this was the only time she could get away with it.

"Oh, Officer Tanaka picks you up?"

"Not usually, he and his partner stay pretty busy. Crazy schedule and all that."

Which was true, especially since they just took over the Missing Persons Unit. Which, Prowl had less-than-kindly stated, was in desperate need of work. And staff.

And it wasn't as if Barricade would let her out of his sight longer than strictly necessary. he insissted on dropping her off and was usually the one to pick her up. Fine by Jodi, she was perfectly content to let the Cybertronian play chauffer.

Even though Jodi had her suspitions that he was never far, due to his dislike of dealing with mass amounts of humans they had agreed on an after school meet-up spot just a bit down the street. She could spot him now at the corner, his Holoform leaning against the passenger side, looking casual in jeans, t-shirt and a black jacket. There was a glint in his hair that said his sunglasses were perched there.

She waved at him, eager to be gone and away from Matt's well-intentioned invites.

He gave a small wave back, those sharp eyes zeroing in on Matt and she just knew he was giving him a suspitious glare.

Said glare was apparently enough to make him balk. "Who's that?"

"My friend."

He gave her an odd look, and it was that that Jodi realized that she never applied that lable to anyone at school. He did a double take, his eyes bugging a bit. "That his car?"

"Yep."

Matt looked like he was at war with himself, as if he was debating the merits of staying versus a hasty retreat. Unfortunately for Jodi, he rallied and kept moving forward.

As they approached Barricade pushed away from his door, eyes flicking between her and Matt. When Jodi responded with a frustrated eyeroll, his posture stiffened and she hastily gave a cancelling hand gesture, telling him to stand down. In an attempt to hasten their exit, Jodi was the first to speak. "Hey 'Cade, ready to go?"

"Of course." He made a point of opening the trunk, and taking her backpack when she offered it to him. When the trunk slammed shut he turned his attention to Matt, voice sharp with annoyance. "Can I help you?"

Jodi wished her sarcasm had the same effect as Barricade's, but clearly Matt had developed an immunitty to Jodi's.

Or maybe that was just Barricade's imposing frame, which Matt was clearly taking in, and visibly swallowed when he noted the dog-tags hanging from his neck. "You, umm . . . you military?"

"Former." Zeroing in on the other teen's discomfort, a smirked crept up on his face. "Dishonerable discharge."

"Uh." Matt paled.

_Okay, that's enough of that._ Jodi pushed 'Cade towards the driver's side, his form as immovable as steel for all that it budged. "Well, as you can see, I have a ride, and as I said earlier, I have plans."

Barricade finally seemed to catch on. "Did you need anything from the house?"

Jodi scurried to the passenger side. "Nope! Let's hit it." She gave the confused boy standing on the curb a quick wave. "Well, gotta go, see you Monday!"

Matt stared after Jodi as she and her companion dissappeared around the corner in the sleek black Mustang.

He broke from his stupor when his phone beeped, signaling he had a text message. Already knowing who it was from, he sighed and unlocked his phone.

_Jeff: How'd it go Romeo? She coming to the BBQ?_

Instead of tapping out a reply he hit the call button. His best friend answered on the first ring. "Well? Come on man, spill! I'm dying over here!"

"Someone already swooped in on her. She just left with some older guy."

"Are we talking Coach Chapman older, or Ms. Rivas older?"

"Rivas. Dude, I don't stand a chance."

Jeff scoffed into the microphone. "You're the regional Martial Arts champ two years running and you are one of our best basketball players. How bad can it be?"

"Over six foot, looks like he could turn me into a pretzle, and drove off in a Mustang I would kill to drive. How bad does it sound to you?"

" . . . I'll tell my parents you're coming over for dinner. You can drown out you're rejection with greasy pizza and all the root beer you can stomach."


End file.
